computer virus

[t hargus]

my computer has been seriouslly infected can i wipe my
hard drive and reinstall windows xp and still use the
same product key

 

[Patrick Keenan]

my computer has been seriouslly infected can i wipe my
hard drive and reinstall windows xp and still use the
same product key

Yes. Boot from the XP CD and you'll have access to the tools to partition
and format the drive via Setup.

There should be no issue with using the same product key. You may have to
activate by phone, but that is usually no problem at all. MS is aware that
people sometimes need to format their drives and start over.

HTH
-pk

 

[Willit]

Yes you can. you can do a repair install if you want.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Yes you can but try removing the virus with your antivirus software before
doing any resinstalling.

 

[DE]

I wouldn't advise a repair, as most viruses re-load through the
registry, and a repair install will not change that at all nor clean up
virus-infected files.

-- DE

 

[Plato]

I wouldn't advise a repair, as most viruses re-load through the
registry, and a repair install will not change that at all nor clean up
virus-infected files.

True. All viruses/trojans/etc MUST be removed before a repair/overlay is
tried.